On reaching the head of the spiral staircase the professor paused for a moment to direct the attention of his companions to a long pa.s.sage which extended apparently along the middle of the ship to the fore-end of the superstructure. The pa.s.sage was about five feet wide, and the ceiling was of ground gla.s.s, through which a flood of light streamed brilliantly down.

"In that direction," said the professor, "are to be found, first, the kitchen, pantry, larder, and store-room; then next to them come my laboratory and workshop, with the armoury and magazine on the opposite side; then the quarters of the cook and the valet; next these again are the bath-rooms and lavatories; and finally, at the extreme end of the pa.s.sage, there are the state-rooms or sleeping apartments, eight in number--four for ourselves and four spare ones."

George, the valet--whose duties, however, on board the _Flying Fish_ were to be rather those of steward and general handy man--stood during the progress of this brief explanation with his hand on the handle of the saloon door; and now, as the professor turned and nodded, he flung the door wide open and stood aside for the baronet and his friends to enter.

They now found themselves in the dining-saloon, an apartment thirty feet square and about ten feet high to the lower edge of the cornice. The walls, of unpainted aethereum, were broken up into panels by fluted pilasters with richly-moulded capitals, each panel having a frosted border covered with delicate tracery, whilst the central portion of the panel was left plain and polished, serving the purpose of a mirror, in which the room and its multiplied reflections on the opposite wall was again reflected in a long perspective. The floor was covered with a rich Turkey carpet, into which one sank ankle deep; the chairs, sofas, the ma.s.sive sideboard, the wide table, in fact all the furniture in the room, was constructed of aethereum and modelled after the choicest designs, the upholstery being in rich embossed velvet of a delicate light-blue shade. The table glittered with a brilliant array of plate and gla.s.s; and the entire apartment was suffused with rich, soft, rainbow-tinted light, streaming down through the magnificent coved skylight of stained gla.s.s, which served instead of ceiling to the saloon.

"Superb!"

"Magnificent!"

"Exquisite!"

Such were the exclamations which burst from the professor's companions as they paused to look about them and take in all the details of the splendidly furnished and decorated apartment. A dozen eager questions rushed from their lips; but Herr von Schalckenberg was hungry, and the dinner was served, he therefore contented himself with bowing profoundly and pointing to the dinner-table.

"Come, gentlemen," exclaimed the baronet laughingly, "take your seats, I beg. It is evident that we have quite exhausted both the professor's patience and his strength, and that we shall get no more information out of him until both have been restored by a good dinner."

With which remark Sir Reginald set the example by taking his place at the head of the table, as he was ent.i.tled to do in virtue of his ownership of the _Flying Fish_.

The dinner was an admirable one, in all respects quite worthy the exceptional nature of the occasion; and under its genial influence, and that of the choice wines which accompanied it, the conversation soon grew extremely animated. The topic was, of course, the aerial ship and the novel and interesting character of her various equipments. The professor speedily redeemed his afternoon's promise to the baronet, and at length succeeded in completely convincing that hitherto sceptical individual that, so far from the enormous proportions of the _Flying Fish_ being detrimental to her, they const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al basis upon which he was justified in his antic.i.p.ations of her success as an _aerial_ ship.

Having at length made this perfectly plain, he was next called upon by Lieutenant Mildmay to explain a certain peculiarity in the binnacle compa.s.s, which had attracted that gentleman's notice and excited his curiosity.

"I observed," he said, "that the compa.s.s-card bore round its outer rim, at every quarter point, a small upright needle. As everything on board here, however apparently insignificant, seems to have its own especial purpose, I should like to know the purpose which those small needles are designed to serve."

"Ha, ha, my friend! so you noticed them, did you? I quite expected that, as a seaman, you very soon would," said the professor. "Well, I will tell you what they are. They form part of a little device of mine to render the ship self-steering, or, more correctly, to make the compa.s.s itself steer her in any given direction. Having noticed those needles, you doubtless also noticed that across the 'lubber's mark'

there was a small slit some six inches long in the side of the compa.s.s- box?"

The lieutenant nodded.

"Good!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the professor. "Had you looked outside the box you would also have observed two long slender arms pivoted close together, their outer and longer extremities being united, and carrying a small needle which travels, point downwards, along the arc of a circle. Now the action of the instrument is this. Supposing that you wish the ship to travel along, say, a southerly course, you manipulate the helm in the usual manner until the south point of the compa.s.s-card swings round to the lubber's mark. The moment that these two accurately coincide you pull toward you a small lever within easy reach of your hand, and the two arms glide in through the slit in the side of the compa.s.s-box, pa.s.sing one on each side of the needle on the edge of the card, and your apparatus is then connected up ready for action. Now, so long as the ship's bows remain pointed accurately to the south, the south point on the compa.s.s-card continues coincident with the lubber's mark, and nothing happens. But should the ship deviate ever so slightly from her proper course the heavy, yet sensitive, compa.s.s needle at once swings round in sympathy; the small needle on the edge of the card moves the two slender arms which embrace it; the downward-pointing needle at the further extremity of these arms travels along the arc; and electric communication is at once established with the steering machinery, which promptly acts in such a way as to bring back the ship to her original course."

"Capital! Admirable!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sir Reginald and the lieutenant together, the former continuing:

"Upon my word, professor, you are a veritable wizard--a magician with powers exceeding those of the most potent of your brethren referred to in the 'Arabian Nights.'"

The professor made a laughing disclaimer. "No, no, my dear sir," said he, "I am no magician, but only a poor scientist. Nevertheless, the wonders of science far exceed those of the 'Arabian Nights,' and will well repay the man who cares to patiently study them."

Enlivened by conversation of a character so interesting to all present, the sitting was prolonged to quite an inordinate length, and though no one, except perhaps the professor, noted the fact, it was past midnight when the adventurous quartette rose from the table, and taking their wine and cigars with them, moved into the music-room, at the same time dismissing the patient George for the night.

The music-room was a much larger apartment than the dining saloon, being, like the latter, the full width of the superstructure, and measuring forty feet between the fore and the after bulkheads. It was the next room abaft the dining saloon, and was even more elaborately furnished and decorated than the latter. The walls, divided up in the same manner as those of the other apartment, were adorned with choice pictures, and exquisite statues of frosted aethereum were grouped on pedestals at frequent intervals all round the room. A coved and panelled ceiling of decorated aethereum sprang from the upper edge of the richly moulded cornice; and a skylight of magnificent stained gla.s.s, somewhat similar to that of the dining saloon, surmounted the whole. A grand piano and a n.o.ble chamber organ, both in superbly modelled aethereum cases, occupied opposite sides of the apartment; a very handsome clock, with a set of silvery chimes for the quarters and a deep rich-toned gong for the hours, occupied a conspicuous position on a wall bracket; chairs, couches, and divans of seductive shape and ample capacity were dotted here and there about the rich carpet; and a handsome table occupied the centre of the room, supporting and reflecting in the silvery depths of its undraped top a n.o.ble epergne of choice hot-house flowers.

"Why, how is this?" exclaimed the colonel as he sank into the luxurious depths of a most inviting arm-chair; "my watch must be all wrong, and your clock there is also wrong, professor; they both a.s.sert that it is half-past twelve o'clock, yet the sun has not yet set," pointing aloft to the skylight, through which a brilliant flood of sunshine was streaming down into the magnificent apartment.

"The sun has not yet set? Then we will soon make it do so," laughingly remarked the professor, rising from his seat and approaching one of the walls of the apartment, whilst the baronet and the lieutenant stared in dismay at their own watch-faces. The German began to manipulate a couple of tiny k.n.o.bs which occupied un.o.btrusive positions in the base of one of the pilasters, and the sunlight gradually deepened into a rich orange hue, then changed to a soft pearly grey, which gradually deepened into a dim delicious twilight in which little was visible save the pictured gla.s.s in the skylight above; then it gradually brightened again, and presently a flood of glorious silvery moonlight streamed down through the skylight and suffused the room. Finally, with an instantaneous change, the brilliant sunlight was again restored.

"Another wonder!" exclaimed Sir Reginald. "How do you manage it, professor?"

"Oh! that is a very simple matter," was the reply; "it is merely a cunning arrangement of variously tinted gla.s.s shades interposed between the electric light above the centre of the skylight and the mirrors which reflect the light down through the stained gla.s.s into the room.

As you probably noticed when on the deck, there are no actual skylights in the usual acceptation of the term; ours are only make-believes; but they struck me as affording an agreeable means of lighting the saloons, so I introduced them."

In further conversation, diversified by music, the time slipped rapidly away; and at length the clock on the bracket proclaimed that it was two hours after midnight.

As the sonorous strokes of the gong announced the fact, the professor rose to his feet, and in a voice tremulous with sudden nervous excitement, said:

"Gentlemen, the hour for our departure, the hour which is to witness the success or failure of our grand experiment, has arrived. The river and the streets of the great city are by this time nearly or quite deserted; and we may therefore hope that our movements will attract little or no notice. Are you ready?"

"Ready!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the baronet; "of course we are, my dear sir. Is not this the moment to which we have all been anxiously looking forward for more than two years? Proceed, professor, we will follow you; and whatever orders you may give us shall be obeyed to the letter."

"Come, then," said the professor; and he led the way through the dining saloon and up the grand staircase to the lower compartment of the pilot- house, and thence out on deck.

To their eyes, fresh from the brilliantly lighted saloons, the night appeared intensely dark; but in a minute or two, becoming accustomed to the gloom, they were able to perceive that the ladder had been taken away from the ship's side, and also that the contractor had completed his task of removing the planking at the river end of the shed, thus clearing a way for the exit of the great ship. They walked to the after extremity of the deck, and from that point were not only able, in the breathless stillness then prevailing, to distinctly hear the gurgle and rush of the river, but also to dimly make out the shining, swirling surface of the water as the flood-tide swept past them.

"The air is absolutely motionless," said the professor. "No more favourable moment could possibly have been chosen for the difficult task of moving the _Flying Fish_ out of her present cramped quarters, and we will at once avail ourselves of it. Lieutenant, I will ask you to return here presently on the 'look-out,' as you sailors term it. Your duty will be to see that when we move out of the shed we do not come into collision with anything. Perhaps you, colonel, will kindly go to the other end the deck, also on the 'look-out;' and, as for you, Sir Reginald, I must ask you to stand on the deck just outside the pilothouse, to see that the electric lamp on the top of it does not come into collision with the roof-timbers, and so drag the roof off the shed.

But as it is necessary that you should all become acquainted with the working of the ship, you had better be with me in the pilot-house until we are actually ready to move."

"Now," continued the professor when the quartette had made their way to the upper floor of the pilot-house, which was moderately illuminated by an electric lamp of small power, "the first thing to be done is to place the tiller of the ship in a horizontal position, and thus bring into action the automatic balancing gear. So! It is done. The next thing is to expel the air from the entire hull of the ship, excepting, of course, the comparatively insignificant portion reserved for habitation, and this I do by injecting vapour into the several compartments. The vapour drives out the air, and then, condensing like steam, creates, if required, a perfect vacuum. This large wheel controls the valve which we now want to open. I turn it this way, so--and now we shall see what will happen."

Two large dials were attached to the side of the pilothouse, close together; and upon these the professor now intently fixed his gaze. The index-hands of both were seen to be moving. A period of perhaps half a minute elapsed, and then the professor, suddenly shutting off the vapour, went over and closely inspected both dials.

"Good!" he exclaimed, after a single keen glance at each of them.

"Gentlemen, let us congratulate each other. Our experiment is a SIGNAL SUCCESS!"

"How do you know that, professor? How can you tell?" eagerly asked his companions.

"Look at these two dials; they will tell you," replied the professor.

"This dial," tapping one with his finger, "indicates the weight of the ship, or the pressure with which she bears upon the ground. This one,"

indicating the other, "shows the pressure of air inside the hull of the ship. The first, as you see, shows that the ship is now pressing upon the ground with a force of less than a single ton--in other words, she now weighs less than one ton. The air-gauge shows that there is still an air pressure of six pounds per square inch inside the hull, and we therefore have, as I expected we should, a large margin of buoyancy.

Now, lieutenant, do me the favour to turn on the vapour once more, very cautiously. Steady! _Stop_! There, Sir Reginald, the index has reached zero, and your ship is now as nearly as possible without weight; and if a man were now underneath her, he might, notwithstanding her gigantic proportions, easily raise her upon his shoulders. Now comes the delicate part of our operation. To your stations on the deck quickly, gentlemen, if you please."

The professor's companions, just a trifle excited, perhaps, hurried away to their posts, and the scientist was left alone. The circular windows in the sides of the pilothouse were all left open, and in through them presently floated the voice of the lieutenant shouting:

"All ready abaft, professor."

"All ready at this end," replied the colonel.

The professor reversed the engines, turned on the vapour _very_ cautiously indeed, and simultaneously, with the engines below only just barely moving, the huge propeller began to whirl round at a speed of some sixty revolutions a minute.

A breathless pause of perhaps two seconds followed, and then the professor, his forehead damp with nervous perspiration, heard:

"Hurrah! She's away!" from the lieutenant.

"She moves; she moves!" from the colonel.

And, "By Jove, she is actually moving!" from the baronet.

Slowly but surely the _Flying Fish_ backed out of the building-shed, until nearly half her immense length projected beyond the walls. Then the voice of the baronet was heard exclaiming:

"Ho! stop her! The electric lamp will not clear the roof, I am afraid.